I remember Sidwick's note in his intro to Greek composition regardingthe usage of verbs where we might expect a noun in English.

So you could express something as seemingly ambiguous and not outright pertainingto these particular people as "the dangers were so great" with "they were in such a dire peril...",and it appears κινδυνεύω by itself was used with such a meaning in Thuc. 3.28, 6.33 and so on (LSJ A.b).You could intensify it with οὕτω if it strikes your fancy.

I would also look at the second part of the sentence as a kind of exercise with result/finalclauses. Were they in such a great peril as to potentially (ὥστε + inf.) run to their houses with their tailsbetween their legs or did they actually go to their respective houses (ὥστε + ind.)?